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  [colpse]Chapter Fifty-Three - Buntimidation

  I crested a hill to find all four remaining members of the cervid group set in a loose formation on an opposite hill. A little rivulet ran across the grouween us, the water flowing along and masking the temosphere with gentle murmurs.

  They had set Amaryllis aside, the Lancer holding his spear close to her ne an obvious sign that they could hurt her at any moment.

  “Level check,” the leader said.

  One of the cervids gred my way. He wasn’t one of the two that had attacked me at the bridge, which meant he had to be Three. “She’s... level seven. amon Bun css. Disposition: dreary and resolute,” he said.

  He must have had a skill simir to my Insight. Since he had used it on me...

  An anxious Cervid Lancer, level ?.

  An angry Cervid Pins Speaker, level ?.

  Those were the two that I had fought on the bridge.

  A calg Cervid Slip Spear, level ??.

  A rational Cervid Wind Warrior, level ??.

  The leader, and then the ohat had just used something like Insight on me. I was expeg a mage of some sort, not a warrior, but maybe that didn’t matter.

  “I just want to talk,” I called out. The distaween us wasn’t that great, but it was enough that I thought I could dodge any attacks that they flung my way.

  Amaryllis gred at her captors, then her eyes softened as she looked towards me. She shook her head minutely, only stilling when the Lancer shifted his spear.

  “What happeo Two and Four?” the leader asked.

  “I...” I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. “I’m sorry about Titan and Rex,” I said. “They didn’t... I’m sorry.”

  The leader shifted a little, his hand straying to his hip where a long, curved sword was hung. The others reacted a little too, but the Pins Speaker reacted most of all. “There’s no way. There’s no way someone like you got to them,”

  “Stop it, Six,” the leader said. It was low, but it still carried over to where I stood.

  “She’s just a human,” Six hissed.

  “Now’s not the time,” the leader said and it was the final word oter. He turned back towards me, his eyes set and I had the impression he was weighing me. “What do you want?” he asked.

  “I want my friend back,” I said.

  “You idiot!” Amaryllis finally shouted. Keeping quiet for a whole minute was obviously too much for her. “You should have just run. Go tell the oth--”

  She colpsed to the side and the Lancer pulled the butt of his spear away from her as she coughed and spat and tried to sit back up despite her arms being tied up behind her back.

  “I’m afraid we ’t just returarget to you. It would go against the parameters of our mission.”

  “I could pay you?” I tried, but the cervid shook his head. My few measly gold pieces wouldn’t be enough for that anyway. “M-maybe you could take me instead?”

  “I’m afraid not,” the leader said.

  “Please?” I asked, begged really. I didn’t want to have to take the step.

  “Five, Six, fnks, Three, you’re with the target,” the leader said.

  I shook my head. “Please? I don’t want to fight.”

  “Gutting you is going to be a pleasure,” The Pins Speaker said. “If you killed Titan, then there’s no need for me to hold back.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to think of something else, but I was tired and weary and nothing came to mind.

  So I whistled.

  Throat Ripper op the hill just behihen jumped forwards so that he was o me, his huge body blog most of my view of the other hill, but I could still see the widening of the Cervid’s eyes behind their helmets and the way Amaryllis began to grin, sharp and vindictive.

  The dog began to growl, the noise almost enough to drown out the rivulet below. Armour ked as every skeletal cervid Gunther had sent with me lined up atop the hill.

  “Three, level check,” the leader barked.

  “The dog’s... a Bone Hound of the Long Slumber, level in the upper twenties, sedary css is Skeleton Lord and its third css is Good Boy. The skeletons.” Three sed the hill, eyes jerking from walking corpse to walking corpse. “They’re all first tier, below ten.”

  The leader’s fidence was gone now. He didn’t seem ready to charge in a fight, especially not when Throat Ripper pced a paw on a rock jutting from the hill and it burst apart with little more than a flex of his toes.

  I stepped up around Throat Ripper, one hand still hanging onto his side to keep him baot that I had any doubt that if the doggy wao jump across the hill he would. “Um, I would really, really rather not fight,” I said.

  “You didn’t tell me she was a neancer,” the leader hissed.

  “She isn’t. I thought her css was baking based,” Three said.

  “It’s actually a nature support css,” I said, defending my css, even if it wasn’t the best. “I don’t know if I could learn baking.” But it was a great idea. If Baking was anything like ing it might be my path towards fireballs.

  The leader shifted. I could tell that he wasn’t actually paying attention, a skill I had honed with much practice while prattling at friends. Still, that was okay because he took a small step bad shook his head. “Five, Six, prepare to pull back. Three, get the smoke ready.”

  “You’re not going to try and run, are you?” I asked.

  “Smoke!” the leader screamed.

  Throat Ripper tensed.

  Three tossed something on the ground.

  I was expeg some smoke from that, but not the amount that burst out and filled the air as if we were suddenly in a thick fogbank. At least it didn’t seem to have any effey breathing.

  Without being able to see, there was no way to know if they were right before me or to learn if they were running away.

  I aimed a hand away from Throat Ripper and fired a small burst of ing magic. The fog around my hand faded away, theurned as the air shifted. So, it was something dirty, something that I could away.

  “Stay, please,” I said to Throat Ripper as I took a few steps before him, pnted my spear into the grouo me, and raised both arms in front of me. When casting a spell, there was a sort of... prompt in the bay mind that asked ‘how much?’ It was the same for Jumping and ing, though both took resources from different pools.

  When ing I had an idea of how much mana I would need, exactly, to something, it was a sehat had been growing keener over time. Now I aimed the rgest and widest ing spell I could before me, and when my mind, or the system, or the world asked me ‘how much?’ my answer was just ‘yes.’

  The burst of magic fired out of me with a kick, shoving me back half a step.

  The effects before me were a whole lot more impressive.

  The magic travelled in a wave, expanding and bursting forwards across the grassy hill, past the rivulette and burst against the opposite hill.

  The cervid stared at me.

  Between us, the smoke bomb let out a pitiful puff a i.

  Throat Ripper growled.

  “Last ce,” I said. I yanked my spear out of the ground and tur so that the point was h between us.

  They hadn’t even gotten Amaryllis onto the Pin Speaker’s back yet, probably because she was fighting them the eime.

  “Please?” I begged past the wash of tiredness. My mana ent, I didn’t have another ce like this one if they had another smoke bomb.

  “Push her down the hill,” the leader said.

  The Pins Speaker grumbled, but he shoved Amaryllis back toward me.

  My friend screeched as she tumbled down the grassy hill, hair flying every which way as she flopped downhill. She stopped ieam with a spsh.

  “This operation’s cost has passed what we were being offered. We’re leaving,” the leader said across the emptiness between us.

  “I.... I hope we never meet again,” I said. It was the meahing I could think to say.

  He nodded and backed away. When he and his men were a little ways off, they started to gallop away with surprisiness.

  I waited just a moment before rag down the hill. I almost tripped as my shoes skidded over wet grass and mud, and my spear slipped out of my grasp, but I didn’t care. Amaryllis was right on the shore of the little stream at the bottom, coughing and sputtering out a facefull of muck.

  I nded o her ao my knees. “Don’t move, don’t move,” I said as I pulled a knife from my bandoleer. A few careful tugs undid the ropes holding her in pce.

  “About time. I hardly feel my oomph!”

  I grabbed the harpy and crushed her to my chest, then held her at arms' length to i her up and down. “You’re okay?” I asked. She didn’t have time to answer. “You look okay. Oh, thank you.” I hugged her closer, arms around her waist to hold her close as I buried my head in her neck.

  “Don’t hug me,” she said. “You’re a mess.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. I didn’t stop hugging.

  She paused, then sighed and started rubbing my back. “What are you sorry over? You saved me, somehow. That robably the siupidest pn I have ever had the misfortune of being part of, but it succeeded, somehow.”

  I opened my mouth to speak but the words caught in my throat. I took a deep breath, and then it came spilling out in a rush, words tumbling over words and I don’t think my story was linear, exactly, but it didn’t matter. I told her of looking for her, of going to Gunther and of making a deal and then I paused.

  “And then what?” Amaryllis asked. “Or did you finally realise that being knee-deep in mud isn’t the pce for this kind of versation?”

  “I killed people,” I said.

  Amaryllis shifted and I slowly pulled away. I didn’t want to. The hug was nice. I missed hugs. But I didn’t deserve them.

  I looked up and into Amaryllis’ eyes, only to see her staring back, fused. “You’re talking of those ruffians, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “The, the cervid meraries, yeah,” I said in a whisper.

  “Okay, and?”

  I blinked. “Eh?”

  Amaryllis shifted, then pushed herself up so that she was standing above me. From where I k on the ground she practically towered above me, especially with her talons on her hips and her muddy wings fred out around her. “Don’t be an idiot. They were meraries. Meraries that tried to kidnap me for the world knows what reason. This was targeted. What you did was just taking out weeds. You even got a level from it.”

  I was breathing deeply, almost panting now. I swallowed and tried to trol the beating of my heart. “No. No it doesn’t matter that they were doing a bad thing. No one should die, ever. Killing people is wrong.”

  Amaryllis k back down a my eyes for a long moment. “Idiot,” she said before hugging me back. “You’re just one big idiot, Broccoli Bunch. To think that you’d promise yourself for someone like me. You’re the dumbest person that has ever been.” She tightened her grip a little, and I think that she might have sobbed, just a little.

  I didn’t know what to feel, so I just fell into the hug and held my friend close.

  Amaryllis shook her head and the hug ended, but I did feel a little better. Not that I wouldn’t have a proper cry ter, but now wasn’t the time for it. “We o get back to Green Hold,” Amaryllis said.

  “I promised Gunther we’d go back to see him,” I said.

  “And that’s wise?” Amaryllis asked.

  “Is going back to Green Hold wise?” I asked right back.

  The harpy tilted her head to the side like a curious bird. “Maybe not that big an idiot. Let’s go then. I’ve had a long m and could use some of that tea of yours.”

  ***

  AnnouNo chapter tomorrow! We're going back to 3 chapters a week for the month of July!But if you want to read ahead, there are options! The kindle version goes up to chapter 67, and those with Patreon access read up to chapter 102!

  On that note; enjoy! See you on Friday!